A walk along the Bude Canal

A lovely walk along a highly unusual canal far out on the west of the country. This canal boasts a lock that drops straight into the sea, having been built to transport shell sand inland for fertilising the farm land. It is a broad canal for the first two miles then a small tub boat canal featuring several inclined planes.

For this walk I went as far as the first incline at Marhamchurch.

From the car park, after exploring the sea lock, follow the canal inland. This first stretch is used extensively for pleasure boating and there are row boats for hire and lots of canoes using the water, this is after all a busy seaside resort. Quite an unusual start to a canal side walk. After the first road bridge the canal runs alongside a wetland nature reserve where there are bird hides for a spot of quiet watching. The canal meanders across an open expanse of country between the beach and the hills behind. Just before Rodd's bridge you pass the first mile marker, and on reaching the small green bridge the tow path changes to the right-hand side. Between here and Whalesborough you pass two locks, both cascaded at the moment. Above the second lock you reach Whalesborough Wood, water for this section of canal was supplied from the River Neet.

Next you have to cross the busy A39 which drives flat across the canal. On the other side is the old road bridge, a delightful stone arch crossing the canal with the typically deeply scored stonework where the tow ropes ran. Go over the bridge and turn right along the canal basin. This was the busy point where the barges were unloaded and the cargo transferred to the small tub boats for the onward journey, it remained a viable business until the 1880s and the arrival of the railway. Following the canal past the engineers house on the left and the workshops over to the right, you soon reach the bottom of the Marhamchurch incline.

Halfway up the incline there is a pumping station, here leave the canal and turn left down the lane passing Boxes Foundry. Go down the track and cross the river, turn right to Hele Mill and before it, turn left up the steps on the footpath. Follow the path up over the brow of the hill, through a gate and onto the road. Go the houses and turn down left into a farm lane, over the A39 again and down to the sewage works, follow the fence around onto the old railway line, then left again down the embankment and follow the permitted footpath to a road. Here turn left and you will be back at Rodd's Bridge, turn right and return to Bude.

Getting there

Parking: Parking is available at the start of the walk.